Poisoning
' Poisoning' is the skill of applying poison to weapons. Only rogues have this skill. Poison weapons have poison spread on their metal blades or points. Each poison weapon has a chance to poison the enemy when it hits. A poison weapon also does the usual damage of a normal weapon, so in general poison weapons are better than normal weapons. The poison will remain for the life of the weapon, but the durability of the weapon will be less. One must have Poison Glands or Bottles of Poison to use the Poisoning skill. Unfortunately, poison glands are less common and more expensive than other reagents. A rogue with a Poison Gland, an Empty Bottle and the correct reagents (garlic, coal) can use this skill to make a Bottle of Poison, which can be bought for 35 gp in the Potions shop (though likely sold for 1 /3rd of that, as is typical). The use of a Poison bottle does not create the waste of an empty bottle as the Bottles of Poison empty bottles cannot be recycled. The rogue may sell the poison to the shop, or apply it to a non-Special, edged weapon. There is a weapons shop in Marali named The Sharpened Dagger run by Shurrk Usada. The Sharpened Dagger is a specialty shop that specializes in the art of death by poisoned weapon. Shurrk will buy select Poisoned Weapons and the poison hand axe but does not sell them. It is speculated that Poison Weapons are sold on the Oberin black market and only to the most secretive of Rogues. Note: the Poison hand axe costs effectively 55 gp to make, is a tool, so stackable and hence-easily bankable; then sells for 20. This is a slightly-higher rate of return than any weapon. Some say they might break more-easily in combat than a regular hand axe. Restrictions - Some weapons can never be poisoned, at any level of the Poisoning skills. Weapons that do not take poison include: *wooden weapons, like Club or Stave. * weapons with extra traits, like Katana of Durability or Frost Axe However, it is possible to poison a GM weapon. A GM Poison weapon has an advantage because the improved durability from GM status roughly cancels the reduced durability from poisoned status. The less well-known advantage of GM Poison weapons is that the level of Poisoning skill required to Poison GM is identical to that to Poison regular weapons. No need to have a "GM Poison," applied to a "GM weapon." Tips The most profitable way to use Poisoning is to combine it with the Blacksmithing skill. With a high enough Blacksmithing skill level, one can easily craft a weapon and then subsequently poison it. When one sells the poisoned weapon in Marali, they will make the most profit. The amount of gold one gets from selling a Poisoned weapon is the same amount of gold it takes to buy that same weapon (without Poison) from the Weapon Store. Therefore one doesn't profit at all if they just buy a weapon, poison it, and sell it in Marali. For example, Ferrite and Logs are valued around at least 100 gp each. Therefore one Ingot and one Board is worth at least 33 gp each. Say that one decides to make and sell a Poison Glaive. It takes 2 Boards and 2 Ingots (as well as Level 8 Blacksmithing) to craft the Glaive itself, so the ingredients are worth about 133 gp. The required Bottle of Poison costs 35 gp, bringing the total to around 168 gp to make it. Upon selling the Poison Glaive in Marali, one earns 366 gp, making over double the money spent on making it. One of course can profit much more if they obtain the Boards and Ingots from harvesting it themselves. However, if one just buys the Glaive (at the price of 366 gp), poisons it, and sells it, they make no profit and actually lose around 35 gp. It should be noted that at lower Blacksmithing levels, this strategy is not nearly as effective and in some cases will not result in profit at all. Using this strategy with Daggers, Broad Swords, and Spears (requiring Levels 1, 2, and 3 Blacksmithing to craft, respectively) will cost more money than it returns. In order to gain profit, one must apply the strategy to weapons that require Blacksmithing Level 5 and above (Katanas, Sickles, Long Swords, Battle Axes, and Glaives). There is one exception: Using the strategy with a Scimitar (level 5 blacksmithing requried) will either cause one to lose a few GP or barely break even, as it requires more resources to make than a Katana does but sells at the same price as one. The above info compressed into a chart easily displaying the profits made from using Blacksmithing to create weapons, poisoning the weapons, and selling them in Marali: As one can see, the overall most profitable way to use Poisoning is to craft Glaives through Blacksmithing, poison them, and then sell it in Marali. Links * Poisoning in Oberin Skill Guide * Skills at Arikis Oberin Info Site, contains a table of the necessary Poisoning level to poison each item. Category:Skill Category:Combat Skill